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AN  ESSAY  BY 


C.  STODDARD^MITH^P.  D.  S., 


Of    3iTE-";77-.^K.IC,    -^iTSr:^    TEieSE-ST, 


BEAD  BEFOEE  THE 


lllittois  ^tate  gewtal  ^0det§^ 


At  its  Session  held  at  Rockford. 


May  14,  15  and  16,  1878. 


CHICAGO: 

Jameson  &  Morse,  Peintees,  162-164  Claek  Steeet. 
1878. 


WU 

im 


Is  Dentistry  a  Specialty  of  Medicine? 


BY  C.  STODDARD  SMITH. 


The  common,  in  fact  almost  universal  and  generally  accepted 
answer  to  the  question  contained  in  the  caption  is,  that  dentistry  is  a 
specialty  of  medicine.  That  such  is  the  case  has  heen  assumed  by 
colleges,  which  embody  this  idea  in  their  announcements  and  curricu- 
lums ;  by  societies  which  so  state  in  their  constitutions ;  and  by  writers, 
journalists,  and  practitioners  generally. 

In  this  paper  we  shall  take  issue  with  this  view  of  the  matter, 
and  shall  present  such  reasons  as  occur  to  us  in  suj)port  of  the  proj^o- 
sition  -that  dentistry  j-s  not,  or  at  least  oru/ltt  not  to  he,  a  specialty  of 
medicine. 

If  dentistry  ivas  a  specialty  of  medicine,  it  would  follow  that  the 
medical  text  books  and  curriculums  should  embrace  a  more  or  less 
complete  exposition  of  dental  science ;  that  a  medically-educated 
man  would  /;//  virtue  of  his  medical  education  and  knowledge,  be  at 
least  measurably  fitted  to  practice  dentistry.  Are  these  propositions 
true?     Is  either  of  them  true?     Let  us  see. 

First,  do  the  medical  text  books  contain,  and  do  the  medical  pro- 
fessors teach,  anything  which  by  any  means  could  be  considered  an 
approach  to  correct  dental  teachings?  It  is  notorious  that  they  do 
not,  as  could  be  al^undantly  shown  by  extracts  from  standard  medical 
works,  which  want  of  space  will  not  permit  us  to  make. 

Incomplete,  as  applied  to  these  teachings  is  not  the  Avord;  inaccu- 
rate is  better,  but  does  not  express  the  fact;  ridiculous  nonsense  is 
nearer  to  it  in  many  cases.  These  books  show  that  the  writers,  emi- 
nent men  in  their  profession,  had  not  the  shghtest  idea  of  the  true 
cause  of  dental  troubles,  or  their  appropriate  remedies.  This  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at.  It  is  but  a  short  time  since  they  were,  on  strictly 
medical  subjects,  floundering  in  the  depths  of  ignorance;  treating  dis- 


eases  as  "humors,"  blistering,  purging  and  dosing  in  a  wholly  empirical 
manner;  and, — the  more's  the  pity, — they  have  not  wholly  gotten  over 
it  yet.  But  does  this  indicate  that  they  are  competent  to  teach  dentists 
what  they  need  to  know  in  order  to  practice  dentistry  successfully?  Do 
the  teachings  or  the  books  in  any  degree  lit  the  student  for  such  a 
practice  ? 

Then,  second.  Is  a  medicaUy-educated  man  able,  hy  virtue  of 
his  medical  education,  to  practice  dentistry  properly"?  A  moment's 
reflection  wiU,  I  think,  convince  a  thoughtful  and  observant  mind  that 
such  is  not  the  case.  Every  one  of  you  kuoir^  it  is  not.  You  know, 
and  I  know,  that  if  the  preservation  of  our  own  teeth,  or  those  of  our 
families,  depended  upon  the  treatment  they  could  receive,  not  from 
the  young  medical  graduate  merely,  with  the  odcn-  of  the  hospital  and 
dissecting-room  stiU  chnging  to  him,  but  from  the  educated  and  tal- 
ented physician  or  surgeon,  of  large  ex^ierienee  and  great  success, 
posted  in  all  the  hterature  of  the  profession,  eminent  in  diagnosis,  we 
should  stand  but  an  exceedingly  shm  chance  of  retaining  any  of  tliem 
longer  than  Dame  nature  and  the  destructive  influences  of  the  mouth 
would  allow  them  to  remain.  Imagine  yourself  for  a  moment,  with  a 
carious  cavity  in  close  proximity  to  the  pulp,  and  dependent  for  treat- 
ment upon  the  village  doctor,  or  even  on  the  most  skillful  medicus  you 
can  caU  to  mind.  Do  you  think  you  would  sit  calmly  and  aUow  him 
to  scrape  and  punch  that  tooth  because  he  was  a  fine  anatomist,  or 
because  he  had  eminent  skill  in  the  treatment  of  typhoid  or  scarlet 
fever?  In  aU  candor,  would  you  not  rather  trust  the  village  jeweler, 
(supposing  him  to  be  an  intelUgent  man,)  to  whom  in  a  half  hour's 
talk  and  demonstration  you  could  explain  the  location  of  the  pulji,  and 
the  operation  necessary?  We  had  almost  said  woidd  you  not  rather 
trust  the  village  blacksmith,  or  the  machinist  from  the  shop?  For  our 
own  part,  we  would  not  only  sooner  trust  the  jeweler,  but  if  we  wanted 
to  make  a  successful  and  a  skillful  dentist,  we  would  select  the  intelli- 
gent jeweler,  or  even  machinist,  in  preference  to  the  doctor,  and  there 
would  be  reason  in  the  choice.  The  training  in  the  one  case  would 
have  been  in  the  line  of  the  daily  requirements  of  the  dentist;  in  the 
other  it  would  have  been  in  quite  another  direction.  Medical  educa- 
tion, be  it  ever  so  thorough,  does  not  in  any  degree  qualify,  it  does  not 
evenprejyare  its  possessor  for  dental  practice;  at  least  not  nearly  as 
much  so  as  does  the  work  of  the  jeweler,  or  mathematical  instrument 
maker,  who  are  accustomed  to  handling  dehcate  instruments  and  to 
making  fine  adjustments.  Even  as  regards  the  comparatively  simple 
and  measurably  surgical  operation  of  extracting  teeth,  do  you  know 
any,  or  at  least  many  general  practitioners  who  perform  it  with  any 
degree  of  skill?     Do  you  not  have  any  number  of  broken  teeth  coming 


from  them  as  an  evidence  of  their  bungling  when  they  attempt  to  per- 
form what  ordinarily  is  but  a  simple  operation  of  what  is  claimed  to  be 
only  a  "  specialty  of  medicine?"  If  we  are  to  judge  what  they  know 
of  their  profession  by  what  they  know  or  what  they  can  do  in  what  is 
claimed  as  a  specialty  of  that  profession,  they  are  but  a  sorry  set  of 
men  to  be  intrusted  with  the  life  and  health  of  their  fellow  creatures. 
I  have  a  better  opinion  of  them  than  that.  I  believe  their  knowledge 
and  ability  on  this  subject,  is-  not  an  index  of  their  skill  and  success  in 
their  own  department.  They  do  know  medicine,  but  they  dont  know 
dentistry;  and  the  best  of  them  know  they  do  not.  The  more  intelli- 
gent and  enlightened  they  become  as  regards  dentistry,  the  less  they 
want  to  meddle  with  it  or  its  operations,  unless  indeed  they  become 
dentists. 

So  much  for  the  skill;  now  for  the  knowledge.  I  need  but  to 
refer  to  the  oft-told  tales  of  doctors  who  treat  alveolar  abscess  for 
months  supposing  it  to  be  erysipelas,  who  treat  neuralgia  as  a  consti- 
tutional disease,  because  the  "  teeth  are  all  sound,"  or  have  fine  "  sohd  " 
fillings  in  them;  who  do  not  know  that  a  wisdom-tooth  may  cause 
almost  any  trouble  about  the  face ;  of  the  surgeons  who  gravely  pro- 
nounce an  old  root  covered  with  salivary  calculus,  to  be  an  "  osteo- 
sarcoina  " ;  of  the  almost  universal  practice  of  the  M.D.'s  who  prescribe 
acid  medicaments  in  blissful  ignorance  or  willful  disregard  of  thei 
effect  upon  the  dental  structures;  of  the  doctor  who  assures  the  parent 
that  the  sixth-year  molar  is  a  milk  tooth,  and  should  be  extracted. 
Every  one  of  us  has  seen  more  or  less  of  this  sort  of  thing;  every  one 
of  us  knows  that  these  accounts  are  usually  accompanied  by  the  state- 
ment that  the  thing  was  "  done  by  one  of  our  best  physicians."  These 
things  show,  not  only  that  medical  men,  as  such,  have  no  skill  in  dent- 
istry, but  that  they  are  wofully  deficient  in  hiowledge  as  well ;  in  fact, 
they  are  but  little  above  the  intelligent  non-professional  in  either  respect. 

And  further;  do  medical  men  necessarily  or  even  usually  make 
the  most  successful  or  skillful  dentists?  We  will  not  say  what  has  been 
said,  that  31. JJ.  stands  for  miserable  dentist;  but  we  will  say  that  in 
our  opinion,  as  a  rule  the  M.I),  members  of  the  profession  are  not 
at  least  any  better  than  the  rest ;  and  we  do  not  believe  they  will  aver- 
age in  ability  as  well  as  an  equal  ni;mber  of  equally  intelligent  non- 
medical men.  Call  to  mind  those  of  your  acquaintance  and  see  how 
they  stand.  Go  abroad  and  see  how  the  long,  scholastic  and  medical 
European  training  makes  fine  operators,  or  rather  see  how  it  does  not 
do  it. 

The  main  reason,  as  we  understand  it,  for  claiming  that  dentistry 
is  a  specialty  of  medicine,  is  that  the  teeth  are  a  part  of  the  human 
frame;  that  they  and  the  adjacent  parts  are  subject  to  disease;  and 


that  he  who  treats  those  diseases  properly  must  understand  the  human 
frame,  and  the  treatment  of  disease;  ergo  he  is  a  physician.  Indeed 
it  has  been  broadly  stated  that  if  we  are  not  medical  speciahsts  we  are 
a  set  of  cai-penters.  But  let  us  see  if  this  statement  is  really  true — if 
this  conclusion  necessarily  follows.  Granted  that  the  teeth  are  a  part 
of  the  human  organism,  and  subject  to  disease,  which  none  will  deny. 
Granted  that  a  knowledge  of  anatomy,  of  physiology,  of  therapeutics, 
is  necessaiy  to  the  proper  treatment  of  dental  lesions.  Does  it  foUow 
because  the  medical  man  must  also  study  these, — because  both  he  and 
the  dentist  are  obhged  to  get  a  part  of  their  prehminary  information 
from  the  same  text  books, — because  certain  knowledge  underhes  both 
professions,  that  the  one  is  a  branch  or  speciiUty  of  the  other?  All 
knowledge  is  founded  upon  certain  substructm-es  which  are  common  to 
aU  branches  ahke.  What  sort  of  an  argument  would  it  be  to  say  that 
architecture  was  a  branch  or  specialty  of  astronomy,  because  both  the 
architect  and  the  astronomer  nmst  understand  mathematics,  and  must 
occasionally  use  the  iiile  of  three  in  working  out  their  problems; 
because  both  make  drawings  upon  paper  to  record  the  work  of  their 
brains?  Shall  we  say  that  pharmacy  is  a  specialty  of  medicine  because 
both  reqiiire  a  knowledge  of  drugs  and  chemicals?  Shall  we  say  that 
the  maker  of  artiticial  legs  is  a  medical  speciahst,  because  he  would 
need  to  understand  the  anatomy  of  the  leg  in  order  to  construct  his 
substitute,  and  because  he  has  to  deal  with  li\-ing  tissue  when  apply- 
ing it  ?  The  temple  of  science  is  not  a  collection  of  columns,  each 
standing  upon  its  own  pedestal,  and  each  crowned  with  its  appropri- 
ate biist  or  sculpture.  It  is  rather  a  magnificent  edifice,  whose  founda- 
tion stones  are  planted  upon  the  solid  rock  of  truth,  and  are  interlaced 
and  interlocked;  its  lower  stories  are  all  communicating,  and  all 
subsei*vient  to  the  uses  of  the  upper  parts,  from  which  rise  the  several 
spires,  cupolas,  turrets,  minarets  and  towers  devoted  to  the  various 
branches  of  science  and  art,  differing,  it  may  be,  in  architectiire,  in 
height,  in  magnificence,  but  all  ahke  parts  of  one  harmonious  and 
imposing  whole. 

It  is  true  that  the  dentist  and  the  physician  must  have  much 
knowledge  in  common ;  but  it  is  not  therefore  true  that  dentistry  is  a 
branch  of  medicine.  Though  there  is  much  in  common,  there  is 
more  that  is  not  so.  What  has  the  physician  (as  such)  to  do  with 
metallurgy  and  plaster-of-paris,  and  sand  and  zinc,  and  tempering 
steel;  with  the  cohesive  properties  of  gold,  the  proper  vulcanizing 
point  of  iiibber,  or  the  manipidation  of  celluloid?  What  does  he 
know,— what  in  the  nature  of  the  case  can  he  know,  about  the  thou- 
sand deUcate  manipulations  of  the  skillful  dentist?  His  time  and 
brain  are  fuU  of  symptoms  and  doses ;  if  he  knew  ever  so  much  dent- 


istry  he  would  not  be  able  to  use  his  knowledge.  What  has  the  dentist 
(as  such)  to  do  with  obstetrics,  with  ophthalmology,  with  cardiac 
disease,  with  lung  or  liver  disease,  with  cerebral  disease,  with  venereal 
disease?  Why  should  he  waste  his  time,  and  that  to  no  purpose,  in 
studying  these  diseases,  their  symptoms  and  their  treatment?  We 
say  waste  his  time,  not  because  such  knowledge  is  not  desirable,  and 
might  not  be  valuable ;  so  might  a  knowledge  of  chem^^try,  or  of  many 
other  things;  but  who  expects  a  dentist  to  be  a  thorough  chemist,  and 
how  is  it  possible  for  him  to  be  one  ?  Chemistry  is  not  a  by-play,  a 
thing  to  be  mastered  in  odd  moments;  it  is  a  life-study,  and  enough 
so  to  engage  the  ablest  minds.  We  say  waste  his  time,  because  aU  the 
knowledge  that  he  might  obtain  from  books  on  these  subjects,  or  even 
from  a  hospital  experience,  should  he  have  it,  would  be  utterly  useless 
to  him  in  his  hfe  work ;  not  because  he  might  not  have  occasion  to  use 
it,  but  because  when  wanted  he  could  not  depend  on  it.  Such  knowl- 
edge, to  be  of  any  practical  use,  demands  not  only  jjreliminary  study 
and  clinical  experience,  but  .constant  and  ceaseless  observation  and 
practice  in  order  to  render  it  of  any  rehable  service,  which,  by  the 
nature  of  the  case,  is  out  of  the  question.  Which  of  you,  if  you  tilled 
a  tooth  but  once  a  year  or  once  in  five  years,  could  do  justice  to  the 
work?  What  graduate  (unless  he  be  possessed  of  an  exceptional 
memory),  can  tell  three  years  after  commencement  the  names  of  the 
muscles,  or  the  bones,  or  the  origin  and  function  of  the  nervous 
trunks?  Who  of  you  would  trust  the  hfe  of  a  dear  one  in  a  crisis, 
with  a  man  who,  though  he  might  knoio  the  symptoms  of  the  fever, 
was  not  practically  familiar  with  the  thing  itself  ? 

We  say  waste  his  time,  not  because  there  is  not  much  in  these 
things  that  is  desirable  and  proper  for  a  dentist  to  know,  but  because 
it  is  utterly  impossible  that  he  shoidd  know  all  or  even  any  consider- 
able portion  of  what  is  just  as  desirable  and  proper  to  be  known. 
Dentistry  itself  is  a  life-work,  a  life-study;  it  takes  a  whole  man  to  be 
a  dentist,  and  it  should  occupy  the  whole  attention.  Foi*  a  man  to 
undertake  to  thoroughly  master  all  that  is  collateral  to  it,  would  be 
like  the  attempt  of  the  landshark  to  buy  all  the  land  that  joined  him. 
He  would  soon  find  himself  upon  a  hmitless  expanse.  The  thing  is 
impossible;  it  cannot  be  done.  To  attempt  it  would  be  to  frustrate 
the  objects  aimed  at,  for  no  time  or  strength  would  be  left  for  the  thing 
itself.  And  when  it  comes  to  choosing,  as  it  certainly  must  come,  it 
is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  choose  that  which  will  best  fit  one  for  the 
practical  realities  of  one's  chosen  pursuit.  In  ordinary  education  this 
is  being  more  and  more  generally  realized;  it  is  recognized  that  the 
study  of  the  classics  and  other  branches,  do  not  tend  to  fit  men, — 
indeed  it  is  sometimes  claimed  that  they  vnjit  them— for  the  practical 


business  of  life;  and,  consequently,  technical  and  i^olytechnic  and 
other  practical  courses  of  study  are  more  popular  than  classical.  The 
ideal  dentist  may  be  fully  educated  in  chemistiy,  in  metallurgy,  in 
physiology,  in  therapeutics,  in  anatomy,  and  aU  kindred  and  cognate 
sciences ;  biit  that  ideal  dentist  will  never  exist  while  flesh  and  blood 
and  human  capacity  remain  as  they  now  are,  simply  because  his  exist- 
ence would  invc^ve  physical  impossibilities. 

Let  us  not  be  misunderstood.  We  go  for  the  broadest,  the  high- 
est, the  deepest  culture  possible,  in  all  departments  of  human  activity. 
But  life  is  short  and  art  is  long.  It  is  given  to  but  few  men  to  become 
possessed  of  eminent  or  even  of  tolerable  knowledge  in  more  than  one 
department;  it  is,  in  fact,  given  to  but  few  to  become  really  eminent 
in  even  one  department.  The  great  mass  must  rest  content  if  they 
attain  sufficient  knowledge  to  enable  them  to  become  efficient  workers 
in  any  single  department  of  the  world's  great  work-shop".  But  let 
every  man  first  possess  himself  of  just  as  much  jireliminai-y  education 
as  his  position,  means,  and  ambition  wiU  enable  him  to  get;  then, 
having  settled  upon  his  caUing,  master  that ;  aftenvarih,  let  him 
acquire  just  as  much  collateral  or  other  knowledge,  as  his  situation 
and  justice  to  his  chosen  occupation  will  pei-mit.  But  let  him  not 
flitter  away  his  energies  in  an  attempt  to  make  a  quart  measure  hold 
a  peck,  or  a  blanket  cover  an  acre ;  to  master  all  the  branches  of  medi- 
cine becaiise  he  washes  to  be  dubbed  a  specialist. 

Far  better  will  it  be,  both  for  him  and  his  patients  (if  he  is  to  be 
a  dentist),  that  he  spend  his  time  and  j^owers  in  obtaining  that  skill 
which  he  will  need  every  day,  and  of  which  there  is  no  danger  of  his 
having  too  much. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  greater  includes  the  less,  and  that  anything 
else  than  a  full  M.  D.  is  but  a  "partial  culture."  The  greater  does 
include  the  less;  bvit  who  said  that  dentistiy  was  less  than  medicine? 
That  is  assuming  the  very  point  under  discussion ;  arguing  in  a  circle. 
Those  who  claim  that  dentistry  is  a  specialty  of  medicine,  would  make 
it  less'  roe  claim  that  it  is  the  proud  ^jee*-  of  medical  science.  Not  in 
age,  it  is  true;  we  cannot  look  down  the  vistas  of  the  past  and  see  an 
unbroken  siiccession  from  the  times  of  Galen  and  Esculapius.  But  in 
our  vigorous  young  manhood,  in  the  skill  and  certainty  we  have  attained 
in  the  performance  of  our  operations,  in  the  "good  that  we  can  do"  to 
suffering  humanity,  jjalliative,  remedial  and  prophylactic,  we  are 
certainly  the  peers  of  any  craft,  profession  or  calling,  be  it  ancient  or 
modern,  be  it  professional  or  mechanical.  We  are  not  "the  less," 
nor  are  we  included  in  the  greater. 

"Anything  short  of  a  full  M.  D.  is  a  'partial  culture.'"  We 
have  shown  in  what  seems  to  us  an  unanswerable  argument,  that  an 


M.  D.  does  not  imply,  or  eveu  indicate,  a  capacity  to  j)ractice  dentistry. 
As  to  the  statement,  that  an  education  which  fits  a  man  only  to  prac- 
tice dentistry,  is  but  a  "partial  culture;"  Ave  admit  it;  it  is  but  a 
"partial  culture."  But  show  us  the  inhabitant  of  this  sublunary 
sphere,  who  has  anything  else  than  a  partial  culture.  What  title 
conferred  by  mortal  man,  indicates  that  its  professor  has  mastered  all 
that  is  to  be  known  ;  that  no  worlds  in  the  realms  of  knowledge 
remain  for  him  to  conquer;  that  all  the  cosmogony  and  theology,  of 
the  here  and  the  hereafter,  is  to  him  but  as  a  lesson  learned?  A  "partial 
culture,"  it  is  true;  but  alas  for  human  nature;  it  must  await  transla- 
tion to  another  sphere,  where  knowledge  and  existence  are  alike 
infinite,  before  it  c;in  hope  for  more  than  this.  A  "partial  culture;" 
yes;  but  Newton,  the  great  and  erudite  philosopher,  to  whose  acquire- 
ments, few  if  any,  can  aspire,  much  less  attain,  was  forced  to  admit 
at  the  close  of  his  life,  that  so  far  from  crossing  the  great  ocean  of 
knowledge,  all  that  he  had  done  was  to  stroll  along  its  shores  and 
gather  a  few  pebbles  from  the  beach. 

The  fact  is,  and  it  cannot  be  disputed,  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
practice  of  dentistry,  is  mechanical.  It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  the 
more  completely  we  accomplish  that  thing  in  regard  to  which  we  talk 
so  much,  and  we  fear  accomplish  so  little — the  enlightenment  of  the 
pubHc — the  more  complete  the  mechanical  character  of  the  practice 
becomes;  that  is,  the  better  care  people  can  be  induced  to  take  of 
their  teeth;  the  oftener  they  submit  themselves  and  their  children  for 
treatment,  the  less  of  disease  as  such,  as  distinguished  from  tlental 
caries,  we  will  have  to  take  cognizance  of,  and  the  simpler  our  opera- 
tions as  a  whole  will  become.  If  dental  caries  is  a  disease  at  aU, 
the  treatment  of  it  ( simple  caries  of  course,  we  mean  )  is  purely 
mechanical.  And  sometimes  we  think  that  with  all  our  boasted 
progress,  we  who  can  circumnavigate  the  globe,  can  put  a  girdle 
aroimd  the  earth  in  forty  minutes,  can  tunnel  under  lakes,  and  rivers, 
and  mountains,  can  talk  through  wires,  and  make  the  lifeless  iron 
speak,  who  can  count  the  very  stars  of  the  heavens,  and  weigh  the 
sun  as  in  a  balance;  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  ourselves  when  we  are 
compelled  to  admit  that  we  cannot  put  a  gold  filling  into  a  little 
miserable  cavity  in  a  tooth,  so  that  it  will  arrest  decay,  or  find  some- 
thing else  that  wiU  do  it. 

But  dental  practice  is  not  all  mechanical;  else  it  were  a  trade  as 
is  the  tinker's,  as  it  was  when  it  began,  or  as  is  the  barber's  trade 
to-day.  It  reqiiires  with  this  mechanical  dexterity,  education  of  the 
brain,  to  know  the  characteristics  of  the  parts  on  which  it  operates; 
it  requires  judgment,  study  and  thought  all  the  way  through,  and 
these  constitute  it  a  profession.     But  it  is  a  pursuit  sui  generis,  of  its 


own  exclusive  kind,  and  as  I  maintain,  separate  and  distinct  from  all 
the  rest.  An  education  of  the  fingers  far  exceeding  that  of  most  of 
the  trades;  education  of  the  head  as  well  as  the  hand;  judgment, 
skill,  dexterity,  and  all  of  the  highest  order  ;  are  not  these  qualities 
sufficient  to  give  us  a  foundation  upon  which  to  rear  our  own  edifice, 
without  asking  to  he  attached  like  a  lean-to  to  the  great  temple  of 
Esculapius?  Da  we  gain  diguity  hy  clinging  to  the  coat-tails  of  medi- 
cine, clamoring  for  "recognition,"  instead  of  standing  boldly  uj)  and 
proclaiming  ourselves,  as  did  the  infant  colonies,  free  and  independent? 
Away  with  such  servile  cringing;  such  degrading  sycoj)hancy  !  They 
do  not  want  us  within  their  doors  ;  let  us  manfully  stay  outside,  and 
show  them  that  while  we  understand  onr  business,  we  do  not  claim 
to  understand  theirs.  Let  us  show  them  that  we  mean  to  be  dentists, 
and  not  medical  speciahsts.  Let  us  know  enough  of  the  branches 
common  to  both  professions,  to  enable  us  to  consult  with  them  intelli- 
gently ;  enough  of  their  profession  to  know  when  we  should  hand  our 
patients  over  to  them.  Let  us  respect  their  rights  and  knowledge  in 
their  department,  as  we  ask  them  to  respect  ours,  and  not  interfere 
with  their  jjills  and  powders,  or  undertake  to  treat  teething  childien 
or  miasmatic  influences.  Let  lis  ask  them  to  study  so  much  of  our 
professional  knowledge,  as  to  know  enough  when  anything  is  the  mat- 
ter in  the  region  of  the  mouth,  to  consult  an  intelligent  and  skillful 
dentist,  and  be  wiUing  to  abide  by  his  advice ;  and  let  us  during  such 
intercourse,  not  endeavor  to  create  the  impression  upon  the  mind  of 
either  the  physician  or  patient,  that  we  are  physicians,  which  we  are 
not,  and  understand  medicine,  which  from  the  nature  of  the  case  we 
cannot;  but  rather  let  us  show  by  our  conversation  and  opinions,  but 
above  all,  by  our  operations,  that  we  are  dentists  and  understand  den- 
tistry. Let  each  profession  know  thoroughly  so  far  as  necessary  to 
each,  those  branches  which  underlie  both  in  common ;  let  us  know  in 
addition,  all  we  can  of  the  other's  profession,  as  we  do  of  all  other 
knowledge  which  goes  to  make  us  intelligent,  educated  and  well 
informed  citizens.  Let  us  make  both  the  medical  profession  and  the 
community  respect  oxw  skill  and  attainments  ;  but  do  not  let  us  lay 
claim  to  being  what  we  are  not.  Thus,  side  by  side,  and  hand  in  hand, 
let  the  two  sister  professions  go  together,  each  according  to  the 
other,  all  the  honor,  dignity  and  knowledge  to  which  each  is  entitled ; 
fraternizing  and  consulting  with  each  other  and  laboring  together,  and 
in  unison,  for  the  good  of  our  fellow  men. 


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